Scrapper Blackwell – Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order Volume 2 (1934-1958) – Document Records BDCD-6030

Scrapper Blackwell’s astounding blues skills and lofty status often find themselves under the weight of having been in partnership, a specter, if you will, with one of the blues’ greatest composers, piano players, and singers, Leroy Carr.  Together the famed pair wrote certain of the finest blues piano/guitar songs of all-time, with their names seemingly being as one.  Blackwell will always be linked primarily for his natural musical camaraderie with Carr, though his brilliant solo efforts ran parallel throughout his long affiliation with the piano great. 

Carr passed away at the age of 30 in 1935, with the tracks on this fabulous CD finding Blackwell both providing his own outstanding compositions and in support of Joshua White and Bumble Bee Slim.  This generous 21-track collection takes the blues fan all the way through to Blackwell’s final recordings, and there isn’t a misstep or throwaway tune among the bunch.

No less an artist as rock legend Bob Dylan said, “There is a strong line in all our music that can be traced back directly to Scrapper Blackwell.  He was a truly great musician who did deserve more than was ever given him.”  Not that Blackwell’s catalog needs the deification of Dylan to cement his sterling blues standing, but such was the reverence bestowed upon him years after his demise owing to an alley mugging in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1962.

Below are the running tracks of this essential CD.  This needs to be in any serious blues collection!

Song Titles

• Morning Mail Blues
• Blues That Make Me Cry
• Mean Mistreater Mama – Joshua White
• She’s Alright With Me – Joshua White
• D Blues
• A Blues
• My Old Pal Blues (Dedicated To Leroy Carr)
• Bad Liquor Blues
• Alley Sally Blues
• No Good Woman Blues
• The Death Of Leroy Carr -Bumble Bee Slim
• Smoky Mountain Blues – Bumble Bee Slim
• Motherless Boy Blues
• Wayback Blues
• Texas Stomp
• Sail On Sail On Blues – Bumble Bee Slim
• Hey Lawdy Mama (France Blues) – Bumble Bee Slim
• Little Girl Blues
• Life Of A Millionaire
• Little Boy Blue
• Blues